


Dear son

by Mindell



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth-centric, Introspection, POV Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Season 1 Compliant, Written before Season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28479738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mindell/pseuds/Mindell
Summary: Gabriel Agreste was thoughtful.Adrien was perfect, it was a certainty. In normal times, Gabriel would certainly have congratulated himself on having succeeded in shaping an heir corresponding as much to his expectations and being so worthy of representing the prestigious Agreste family.But today he wondered if he hadn't made a terrible mistake.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 2
Kudos: 88





	Dear son

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Cher fils](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7627204) by [Mindell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mindell/pseuds/Mindell). 



> Hi !  
> This is a translation of my fic "Cher fils". English is not my first langage, feel free to tell me if you see any mistake :)

Gabriel Agreste was thoughtful.

Although night had already fallen for several hours, the most renowned designer in Paris was still sitting in his office located in one of the main building of his flourishing company. It was an austere room, whose cold and uncluttered furniture reflected perfectly the personality of its owner. Everything was gray, white or black, with the notable exception of the multiple portraits of his only son which adorned three of the walls of the imposing room, all taken during various advertising campaigns.

Gabriel's gaze wandered for a moment on these shimmering images, whose vivid colours contrasted remarkably with the rest of his office.

Adrien could be seen everywhere, his electric green eyes seeming to pierce beyond the photo while his blond hair naturally captured the slightest ray of light. Over the years, the curves of childhood that were still visible on his adolescent face had given way to more marked features that delighted photographers. His jaw was perfectly drawn and his cheekbones artistically cut, while his profile was chiselled with so much delicacy that one might have thought he was sculpted by a genius artist.

In addition to having a more than advantageous physique, the young man also had the significant advantage of being really able to convey emotions through a simple photograph. He didn't just _wear_ the clothes, he made them _live_ , with ever-renewed success. Thus, over the years, Adrien had gradually established himself as the flagship model of all Gabriel's men's collections, gaining in the process the respect of the whole industry for his seriousness and professionalism.

Although his pride and a certain form of modesty prevented him from admitting it to anyone, Gabriel Agreste knew that he could be proud of his only heir. Adrien was perfection reincarnated, wonderfully satisfying the high expectations of his strict father. He had become an accomplished man, leading simultaneously and with equal success a brilliant education and a no less dazzling career.

In normal times, Gabriel would certainly have congratulated himself on having succeeded in shaping an heir corresponding as much to his expectations and being so worthy of representing the prestigious Agreste name.

Yet, on this very day, something was bothering him, something that had taken him some time to determine exactly what it was.

And Gabriel Agreste didn't like to be bothered, much less by a simple impression, however fleeting it might be.

Especially since far from being fleeting, this feeling had gradually diffused in him throughout the day, insinuating itself in the smallest recesses of his mind and fiercely refusing to disappear despite his firm attempts to ignore him as best he could.

  
Letting out a slight sniff of annoyance, the famous designer turned his gaze to the screen of his computer, on which a video filmed more than ten years ago was looping. That of a happy family picnic, in the middle of a field where a myriad of wild flowers bloomed in dazzling colours.

A video where Adrien and his mother laughed out loud, hugging each other and smiling brightly at the person holding the video camera.

The last video of his wife still alive.

Gabriel sighed heavily. He had been strangely sentimental all day, and he knew exactly why.

His wife.

Today was the anniversary of their meeting.

Not the one of their first date, nor the one of their wedding, but the one of the day when his eyes had set for the first time on this admirable young blonde girl who had immediately stolen his heart.

After pausing the video, Gabriel reached for the screen, tracing the edges of his wife's smile with his long fingers. A smile that he could have redrawn with his eyes closed, so much he knew by heart the slightest curve, the slightest dimples.

The same smile as Adrien's, he thought, not without a certain melancholy.

No, he resumed himself with lucidity.

The same as Adrien's, _before_.

Gabriel couldn't even remember the last time the young man had burst into his presence with such frank laughter as the one that lit up his face in the video. Adrien had always been a relatively calm child, but he had also been an impulsive and cheerful boy. Under Gabriel's strict education, he had gradually transformed into someone serious, whose irreproachable composure did not allow the slightest overflow. His joyful laughter had been replaced little by little by perfectly controlled smiles while his reactions no longer left any room for spontaneity. His seriousness was impeccable, allowing him to do honour to the resplendent reputation of the Agreste house.

Exactly the result Gabriel had relentlessly sought.

Exactly the cause of this disturbing feeling that had gripped him all day.

Exactly the reason he felt his heart strangely heavy watching Adrien's laughing face in that old video.

Although he did not hesitate to do it whenever it was necessary, Gabriel did not like to question himself, let alone about the education of his only son.

But today he doubted, wondering if he hadn't made a terrible mistake.

Adrien was perfect, it was a certainty.

Perfectly perfect.

And probably perfectly different from the man he would have become if Gabriel Agreste had not so deeply left his mark on his personality.

He had spent years carefully molding every attitude of his son to his liking, taking advantage of the latter's thirst for recognition to bend him to his will and thus create an heir corresponding in every respect to his ambitious demands.

For Adrien's sake, he was convinced then.

To prepare him to face the outside world as well as possible when he becomes an adult.

So he could be strong if he suddenly found himself alone, now that his mother was already gone.

But today, Gabriel was no longer sure he had made the right choice. He replayed again the video of his barely teenage son sending sincere, bright smiles to the camera, wondering with increasingly overwhelming guilt if he hadn't purely and simply destroyed Adrien's personality, making it disappear in favor of a character artificially assembled from scratch to serve his own ambitions.

He stopped the video once again at the exact moment his wife's joyful face appeared.

Would she have approved of what he had done with their son? Would she have been happy that he had meticulously transformed this child with such an easy laugh into a being of such perfection that it was anything but natural?

Nothing was less certain.

Tearing himself from his dismal thoughts, Gabriel shut down the video before turning off his computer. He let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as the harsh light falling from the ceiling outlined his drawn features. Gabriel was rarely in such a gloomy mood, and he did not like the state of mind. He who was so used to fighting the appearance of the slightest emotion even took as a personal insult the fact of feeling so down.

He stood up, walking slowly towards the entrance of the room.

Tomorrow, everything would certainly be better.

Tomorrow, these nostalgic questions would surely have vanished into the night, carried away by the rays of the sun of a day which would not be the anniversary of his meeting with his wife. And Gabriel would be completely satisfied with what had become of his son again.

He automatically turned off the light from his office on his way out, then wandered thoughtfully through the corridors. Most of them were deserted at this late hour, and he carefully avoided to cross his few employees still present.

Despite himself, his thoughts returned incessantly to Adrien, remorse becoming more and more vivid each time as he thought back to the strict childhood he had imposed on him.

For Adrien’s sake, he kept telling himself, trying to convince himself. All for Adrien’s sake.

But Gabriel knew for a fact that when his wife died, his heart somehow died with her.

And with all due respect to his pride, he had chosen to hide himself. He had brutalized himself with work to try to escape his pain. He had been cruelly intransigent with his son, demanding that he be absurdly strong in spite of his terrible grief. And as the years went by, Gabriel had been ever more strict, ever more distant, fleeing from Adrien just as he had fled the death of the love of his life, unable to escape this infernal spiral that he himself had started.

Even if he seemed to have become a fulfilled young man, Adrien had most certainly paid a high price for this headlong rush from his father.

And the smiling child that he was had disappeared, crushed by the obedient shadow created from scratch by Gabriel.

At the bend of a dark corridor, Gabriel heard a crystalline laughter suddenly breaking the silence into which the building was plunged. The joyful sound sprung from a room from which also escaped a ray of light through the half-open door. As he continued on his way, the designer absently glanced through the opening, wondering curiously who could still be here at such a late hour.

He caught sight of a young woman whom he immediately identified, recognizing an intern who had joined one of his teams a fortnight earlier. Dupain-Cheng... Marion? Marine? Something like that. A promising student, according to her tutor, who was scribbling at her desk with a focus that was visibly matched only by disdain for the number of hours she was limited to work per day.

Gabriel was about to continue on his way without dwelling on the situation any longer when a second voice instantly caught his attention.

A male voice, laughing and warm.

A voice that strangely resembled that of his son.

Retracing his steps, the brilliant Parisian designer approached quietly. Careful to remain hidden in the shadows, he scanned the interior of the room with his piercing gaze. And what he discovered there almost made him gasp in surprise despite the wonderful composure that usually made him proud.

The voice he had heard was indeed Adrien's, but to his amazement, the young man he discovered was a far cry from the clean and smooth image he usually presented to him. Adrien was more or less seated in a chair, one leg slipped casually over one of the armrests as he leaned his torso in the opposite direction, bringing his blond head closer to the young intern beside whom he was.

His hair - usually impeccably groomed when he was in the presence of his illustrious father- was more ruffled than Gabriel had ever seen, forming a chaotic cluster of golden curls that stood rebelliously around his scalp. It also didn't seem to bother Adrien too much, given the way the young man casually ran his fingers through his hair to stir it up a little more.

But more than anything, it was the expression that lit the face of his heir that struck Gabriel. Erased, the serious air admirably mastered and the formal smiles his son usually showed when he was in his company. There, Adrien's brilliant green eyes twinkled with joy as a playful laugh still lingered on his delicately curved lips. The corners of his mouth stretched even more, revealing a frank smile that lit his features like a warm ray of sunshine.

Adrien stared at the young woman sitting next to him, his body tilting more and more towards her as he seemed captivated by the her. His eyes seemed to follow the slightest outline of her face, before descending to her slender fingers which were visibly bent on trying to put the finishing touches on a sketch, then back up to her face again.

Slowly, he reached out in her direction, running his fingers lazily through the dark curls that cascaded over her shoulders.

"My Lady..." he whispered tenderly.

She looked up, her blue eyes slightly slit almond-shaped immediately finding Adrien's.

"Give me only five more minutes," she replied with a soft smile, mechanically placing behind her ears one of the strands of hair that Adrien had just disturbed. " I'm almost done. "

"You already only had five minutes left five minutes ago," retorted Adrien, displaying a falsely pouting mouth which drew a burst of laughter from the woman.

"I'll do it as quickly as possible, kitty,” she replied joyfully. “Promised. "

As she leaned again on her desk to run her pencil across the paper in a discreet screech, Adrien had resumed his contemplation of his companion, a slight smile still dancing on his lips.

It took barely a minute for the young man to lose his patience yet again, his fingers once again venturing in the young woman's direction to linger this time on the bare skin of her arm.

"Princess ..." he resumed in an almost plaintive tone.

She turned to Adrien with a light sigh, but the words she was about to say died deep in her throat when she saw Adrien tilting his head slightly to the side, his face lighted up with a smile where the charm mingled with a frank impertinence. She laughed, reaching out for him to affectionately tousle her blonde curls.

"Oh, kitty, you are impossible!" She laughed as her cheeks looked delicately pink.

"I know," replied Adrien in a cheeky tone while sitting up in his chair, "but that's why you love me. "

"Who knows ..." she replied mischievously, a broad smile now illuminating her face.

Adrien deftly wrapped his fingers around the woman's wrist as his free hand slid down her waist, forcing her to gently move away from the sketches she was trying to finish to rotate her towards him.

Gabriel Agreste stepped back, not wishing to observe any longer the moment of complicity shared by his son and his young intern, while absent-mindedly thinking that he should quickly find the first name of the one who had visibly captured his son's heart.

Quickly walking away from the room, he walked through the hallways with a light step, the fears he felt moments earlier in large parts soothed by the scene he had just witnessed.

Although she was still highly questionable, his influence had not been enough to break the personality of her son.

When he was with him, Adrien behaved like the serious, polite and reserved son that Gabriel had meticulously forged for years. But obviously, the famous designer noted with unexpected relief, it was a facade that the young man reserved for his father and his professional entourage.

The lively boy that Adrien was had not disappeared.

He had endeavoured to show his father what he wanted to see, to satisfy his most absurd demands, but he had managed to remain himself despite everything.

Gabriel didn't have the slightest doubt that it was Adrien's true nature that he had glimpsed moments earlier. Far from the eyes of his strict father, the young man seemed to become again the laughing and expressive boy he was in his childhood, his face animating with a thousand expressions that his father had not seen him for years. Gabriel’s heart grew lighter at the memory of Adrien's eyes sparkling with joy a few minutes earlier, all reserve abandoned while frank smiles were spreading over his lips.

Gabriel had taken a few more steps when a thought suddenly struck him. Stopping for a moment in the middle of the hall, he let out a small laugh.

Adrien still had his mother's smile.

***** THE END *****

**Author's Note:**

> That's all for this story! I wrote it when there was only the season 1 released, that's why I don't explicitly talk about the fact that Gabriel is Hawkmoth.  
> I hope you liked this little fic :)  
> Have a nice day !


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